Friday letters: Subway, Planned Parenthood, Medicare

Copyright 2015: Houston Chronicle

Published 6:40 pm, Thursday, August 20, 2015

Photo: Matt Sayles, INVL

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Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle arrives at the world premiere of "Maleficent" at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. Fogle has agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he paid for sex acts with minors and received child pornography that he knew had been secretly produced by the former director of his charitable foundation, federal prosecutors said in court documents released Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. His guilty plea marks one of the biggest downfalls of a famous pitchman. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) less

Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle arrives at the world premiere of "Maleficent" at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. Fogle has agreed to plead guilty to allegations that he paid for sex acts with ... more

Photo: Matt Sayles, INVL

Friday letters: Subway, Planned Parenthood, Medicare

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Don't blame company

Regarding "Jared Fogle facing prison, fines, divorce" (Page A2, Thursday), Subway isn't responsible for Fogle's crimes and should not be tainted. It's not like Fogle was upfront about his deviance.

Regarding "Planned Parenthood cuts hurting women" (Page B9, Wednesday), Planned Parenthood would survive without any federal funding. There are many mega-rich individuals who would make sure that Planned Parenthood would not go out of business. Besides, its political action committee seems to have lots of extra cash on hand every election cycle to "donate" to various campaigns and candidates supporting its mission.

Medicare enrollees now have access to a medication that can put some leukemia patients into remission ("Medicare, reversing itself, will pay more for an expensive new cancer drug," HoustonChronicle.com, Aug. 8). In response to the medicine's six-figure price tag as well as the cost of other cancer drugs, some oncologists have urged the government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare patients.

Cancer is but one disease affected by the cost of medication. Unlike this one example, government "negotiations" could actually lead to limited access for seniors to lifesaving medications. Insisting that pharmaceutical companies accept artificially low prices may stop them from selling certain drugs to Medicare, such as in the case of veterans and the Veterans Affairs. As a consequence of "negotiations," VA insurance plans cover just 65 percent of the drugs most commonly prescribed through Medicare.

Facing enormous costs for research and production, the reality for pharmaceuticals could indeed cause a repeat of such a scenario with Medicare's formularies. While lowering prices for chronic disease medications indeed sounds like an important goal, government-imposed negotiations could be the wrong approach.